Dangerous Times

It's dangerous times these days: the story of two policemen killed during a drug raid shows that criminals are getting more and more brazen. Well, it is very clear that crime is getting slowly but surely on the rise over the past few years: break-ins and burglaries (the killing of an ex-IGP during a burglary) , snatch thefts (popular a few years back), then robberies (remember the goldsmith robbery in Subang Parade?), car-jackings (oh so popular now!), exploding models (aah...) and now this.

While crime is always omnipresent in any society, it leaves us to wonder whether other factors have made crime worth the risk. Obviously money is scarce if you are doing an honest day's job, and the rising cost of living isn't helping either; and there is some amount of glorification of criminal figures as well as not-so criminal figures (read: Mat Rempit). Not helping is the mess the police force is in: so-called factional battle for control at Bukit Aman.

So here we see two policemen killed and here we have the IGP ordering a thorough probe focusing on whether procedures have been followed during the raid. Hello...it's a week and they have no leads on the cop-killers? Of course there are the usual calls for improvements in equipment which is approved which lightning speed (this in a country with such lengthy red-tapes that people usually go elsewhere, but of course there's money to be made here for the connected - hence the urgency!)

Lastly not wanting to sound racist, but since the ones killed aren't from the privileged race, we won't see the state or national-type funerals attended by top dignitaries, or the posthumous promotions or donations to the grieving families usually accorded to them...

But that's life here in this country...we learn to gripe, and then move on...